permaculture in Africa. Hiden obstacles and hidden opportunities.

Let me take you to the area of permaculture no one speaks about. Let me show you the culture of my small town Otjiwarongo in Namibia, Africa.
Here is some of the things that you jave to take into account when designing a permaculture in Africa.
#namibia #otjiwarongo #permaculture #foodforest #africa

[ourrockydreamontheelephant]

Teaching others by example is the best way. Thank you for the tour.

[agh]

I went back to the small Somali village my dad grew up in northern Somalia near ceel miskaal mountains. When I went back there were a lot of date palms and absolutely nothing else, ended up driving 5 hours to get 4 fig seedlings. Water is very difficult however because of the salinity of the groundwater

[dunedainmom]

This is fascinating. I am praying your permaculture on your land is so successful that others notice, and copy you.
One imagines the abundance that could come from saving all the mulch instead of burning it!

I am in a very different world, phoenix, usa. Very wealthy place by global standards (working class neighborhood by US standards). But even here there are many against mulch, who think a well maintained yard is covered in gravel and hire companies to spray poison in any "weeds" that come up. We have lots of rock hard dirt here (annual rainfall 17cm/6in), and lots of gravel covered yards. When we bought our first house 2 yrs ago, it was dead hard dirt with not even weeds. We have been adding lots of mulch. Only 8-12in of mulch heal the diet to make the trees live.

By the way your English is excellent. I am a monolingual English speaker, and yiu are very easy to understand.

[MsDanielleStern]

Wow thanks for you tour in Otji township. You seem so inspired and ready to Green the north. ❤

[richardbird]

Teaching rain water collection with tin roof gutter and water tank .like in australia will be great start to help people and plants

[DJG]

It is really cool that you gave people fruit trees. I gave spinach plants to the man who used to work in our garden (he lived in a squatter camp in South Africa). He told me the plants died from lack of water. I recently decided to started researching African indigenous fruit trees and plants. They are often considered famine food and are used when western crops fail. Now I know I should have given him Creeping foxglove (Asystasia intrusa) as it is drought resistant and is traditionally used as a leafy vegetable… I should have also taught him about Zai pits to capture water runoff. Anyways I am not sure if you’ll be planting indigenous fruit trees… but you should definitely consider planting some.

[anthonyburke]

There are a few books by Geoff Middleton on building mostly using mud brick, but some using “pose” both as rammed walls and rammed bricks. A much better building material, you can use it “straight” or add from 2% to 10% cement to stabilise the pise.

[carelesswhispercarelesswhi]

I love this so much i start with my gardening and planted lucerne my mother 😂😂😂😂 at me and called me crazy for my projects this is inspiring continue with contents like this

[DrLager]

High quality videography my friend. You have a gift for explaining tough reality without being patronising or being the 'white saviour'. You are a sincere man and huge asset for your town!

Is it possible to devise a way to improve the insulation of the homesteads? Fast growing native plants or bamboos, or even layers of clay/fibre? It seems to me that the biomass loss from the soils is a driver of poverty and makes life less secure. As Richard point out below, the lack of rainwater collection from those roofs is a tragic wasted opportunity.

[anthonyburke]

He thinks he writes about returning organic matter to the soil, but he actually came up with something akin to the “Pentropiv zagroforesty” ideas, just not as dense and not as varied (naturally as he developed his ideas out of traditional Japanese farming and his palette of choices was limited). He did all his work by his own manual labour and a lot of it on sloping country

[anthonyburke]

An interesting read is Fukuoka “One Straw Revolution”, it’s not Permaculture, but his insights are good.

[pampotgieter]

I guess the only way is to lead by example. By teachering your people that work for you. They must surely see the benefits of the principles of Permiculure that you are practicing on your farm.
Especially when they see the results. But as you say, its the lack of water, that seems the determining factor.
We have 10 and 20 litre buckets under the tin roof, and when it rains the buckets fill up. There is no gutters ion these houses in the complex.
The plants thrive on rain water.
When there is no rain, we fill up the buckets with tap water and let them stand so that the chorine evaporates.
I use about 3 to 4 teaspoons of Liquid Calcium Acetate solution made from baked egg shells and vinegar, into a 10 Llitre bucket of rain water.
As I shared in another video of yours.
From Nate Muri "Garden Like A Viking". It is plant available food.
I have never lived in a place like Namibia, so its hard to imagine what it is like live in such dry desert conditions.
You will be shown how to help these people. There is always a solution, even we dont see it at first. The desire is there.
There is nothing impossible to God.
I love Nates statement
"Infinte "Spirit goes before me and opens the way. Infinate wisdom tells me what to do to say"
God bless you in your actions.
Thank you 🙏👋👍

[markthompson]

I'm curious to know why they burn all of the leaves they rake up instead of mulching them to improve their soil (and water retention).

[douwebeerda]

Is it a crazy or naive idea to do some screenings of permaculture videos for people that might be interested? Show Greening the Desert from Geoff Lawton, or India's Water Revolution from Andrew Millison. Or Green Gold from John D. Liu? Maybe if people can see it it might get them interested or is the cultural barrier to big?